Florida State seeking bounce back victory against North Carolina

TALLAHASSEE — Jimbo Fisher won't be watching. His Florida State team won't be watching. The Seminoles here today will play North Carolina at 3:30 p.m. And that's all Fisher wants Florida State to be thinking about.

He certainly doesn't want the Seminoles thoughts' to be drifting a couple states north, to Clemson, S.C. There, about three-and-a-half hours before kickoff between Florida State and North Carolina, N.C. State and Clemson will begin a game of significance in the Atlantic Coast Conference's Atlantic Division race.

Should N.C. State lose, the Seminoles could control their fate in the division before their game even begins – right around the time Chief Osceola plants a flaming spear at midfield in Doak Campbell Stadium. But, Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder said, the Seminoles will have to do their best to "block it out."

The Seminoles a week ago at N.C. State had a chance to all but lock up the division. A win against the Wolfpack would have made the Seminoles the overwhelming favorite to represent the Atlantic Division in the league championship game next month.

Florida State's game today, then, is about two things: Rebounding from a disappointing, heartbreaking 28-24 defeat. And playing with the kind of poise that led the Seminoles to a 5-1 start. Since then, Florida State survived its sloppiness in an ugly win against Boston College and succumbed to it in a loss at N.C. State.

Fisher said on Thursday he was pleased with how his team responded in practice this week but that "we'll find out on Saturday" how well Florida State has handled the last-minute loss against the Wolfpack.

"But they went back out there and have been very resilient about how they went back to business," Fisher said. "And haven't pointed fingers at each other and haven't complained. But they went back to work and practiced well and done what they had to do.

"Now again, hopefully we'll take it to the field. We'll find out."

The 24th-ranked Seminoles enter today with a sense of urgency. They haven't lost consecutive games all season. And they know they can ill afford another league loss and still survive to make it to the title game.

A victory today wouldn't be program-defining. But without a victory today, the Seminoles might dig a hole too deep to jump out of.

"We're still in the thick of the ACC," Ponder said. "And it's important for us to get past [the loss last week]. Obviously, we're going to have to hope that N.C. State messes up at some point. But we're not worried about that – we're controlling what we can control.

"We can't let one loss turn into two."

That was also the mantra after Florida State lost at Oklahoma earlier this season. The Seminoles responded from that defeat with five consecutive victories.

Which is partially why there will be no scoreboard watching today. If the Seminoles today can build the foundation to another winning streak, they believe they'll be fine. If they don't, it might not matter anyway.